No need for JPC: Sibal

The government has already recovered Rs 93 crore out of the Rs 219 crore lost because of irregularities in the way 2G licenses were awarded, telecom minister Kapil Sibal said, questioning the need for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe.

Sibal also lashed out at the BJP for “raking up” the Bofors scam following the order of an Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) stating that Win Chadha and Ottavio Quattrochhi received “kickbacks” for the gun deal.

“What has the ITAT said which is new. It has merely upheld earlier decisions, based on earlier information already in the public domain,” Sibal said.

He also said that the government was working on a campaign to counter the Opposition’s stacks on the 2G spectrum scam. “If the Opposition will not let us bring out the truth in Parliament, we will have no option but to go to the people with the truth,” he said.

The issuing of show cause notices had led to the recovery of Rs 93 crores voluntarily, Sibal said, arguing that this money would have been recovered months later had the government waited for a JPC to be set up.